1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a roof storage structure for vehicles having a folding hard roof.
2. Description of Related Art
There have been known convertible vehicles with a folding roof that are converted to open vehicles when the folding roof is retracted. One of such the vehicles is disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,429,409, entitled xe2x80x9cConvertible Top,xe2x80x9d issued to George A. Corder et al., Jul. 4, 1995. This vehicle is equipped with a folding roof comprising three parts, namely a front roof part made of a substantially rigid panel, an intermediate roof part made of a flexible sheet and a rear roof part made of a substantially rigid panel such as a rear windshield glass. Another one of such the vehicles is disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,584,522, entitled xe2x80x9cStowage-Space Arrangement for Vehicles with a Folding Roof,xe2x80x9d issued to Wolfgang Kernre et al., Dec. 17, 1996. This convertible vehicle is equipped with a retractable roof comprising two parts, namely a forward roof part and a rearward roof part, both made of a rigid panel, that are connected to each other by a hinge.
These vehicles with a folding roof are changeable between a closed state where a passenger compartment is closed up by the folding roof and an open state where the folding roof is retracted and opens the passenger compartment.
The vehicle that is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,429,409 is converted to a sporty two-seater roadster by folding and retracting the flexible intermediate roof part and the rigid rear roof part in a space above rear seats left unfolded and closing a rear passenger space behind the front seats by the rigid front roof panel. Because of a flexible sheet employed for the intermediate roof part, the roof can be folded compactly, so that it is realized to design a vehicle body with a comparatively small roof storage space and/or to design seat arrangement that is easy to avoid mechanical interference of the roof with, for example, a seat back of a rear seat In the course of folding and retracting the roof into the roof storage space.
However, in the case where a vehicle is equipped with a folding hard roof such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,584,522, the circumstances begin to present an entirely different picture from the folding roof including a flexible sheet. Specifically, in order to be stored in a confined space, the folding hard roof is in want of artful contrivance regarding avoidance of mechanical interference with structural parts of the vehicle body such as a rear seat and retracted posture of the folding hard roof. For example, in order to provide a roof storage space for the folding hard roof, the seat cushion with the seatback superposed thereon is raised up against the seatback of the front seat.
In either roof storage configuration, since the roof storage space is provided by moving the rear seat within a rear passenger space only, it can be hardly said that the roof storage space is sufficiently large to store the folding hard roof particularly in the case where the vehicle body is designed to be compact in a lengthwise direction.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a roof storage structure suitable for a vehicle with a folding hard roof that is converted to an open vehicle by folding and retracting the folding hard roof into a rear passenger space between front seats and rear seats that is expandable in effect and also suitable for increasing the design freedom of storage of the folding hard roof resulting from the expandable rear passenger space.
It is another object of the present invention to provide roof storage stricture suitable for a vehicle, such as having two front seats and two rear seat subsidiary used, that is equipped with a folding roof retractable into a comparatively small rear passenger space between the front seats and the rear seats.
The foregoing objects of the present invention is accomplished by a roof storage structure for a four-seat vehicle with a folding hard roof retractable into a rear passenger space provided between front seats and rear seats in a passenger compartment. The rear seat is partly movable backward so as to expand the rear passenger space in a lengthwise direction of said passenger compartment from the front to the back suitably for a roof storage space in which the folding hard roof is retracted. The rear seat has a seatback with an upper part movable backward with respect to the remaining part of the seatback.
According to the roof storage structure in which the rear passenger space is expanded in the lengthwise direction by moving partly the rear seat, the design freedom of storage of the folding hard roof in increased. In particular, it is realized to assure both compact body of the vehicle and spacious roof storage space which are somewhat conflicting with each other.
The roof storage structure of the present invention is suitable for vehicles with a folding hard roof that is comparatively long in a lengthwise direction. The vehicle with the roof storage structure of the present invention is convertible between a two-seater open mode, like a two-seater roadstar, in which the folding hard roof opens the passenger compartment and is retracted in the rear passenger space expanded by moving the rear seats at least partly backward and a closed mode, like a two-door coupe, in which the folding hard roof closes the passenger compartment. Further, the vehicle in the closed mode is selectively changed between a utility mode in which the rear seats are moved at least partly backward so as to expand the rear passenger space for roof storage and an ordinary four-seat mode in which passengers can sit on the rear seats. In the utility mode in which the rear passenger compartment is expanded, the vehicle can be loaded with cargos in the rear passenger space, so as to enhance the convenience thereof.
In the case where the folding hard roof which comprises three parts, namely front, middle and real roof parts, mechanically connected with one another is retracted with the middle and rear roof parts superposed on each another below the front roof part situated horizontally in the roof storage space.
In the case where the vehicle has a trunk room separated behind the passenger compartment, the rear seat is at least partly movable backward into the trunk room. When the rear seat is partly moved into the trunk room, there is provided an aperture between the passenger room, in particular the rear passenger space of the passenger room, and the trunk room that is closed and opened by the rear seat. When the rear seat is partly moved, the aperture is opened, so as thereby to provide a trunk-through formation where the passenger compartment opens into the trunk room. The trunk-through formation enables the vehicle 1 to be loaded with even an article that is too long to be stored within the trunk room.
Although the roof storage structure is suitably installed to a two-door four-seat sporty vehicles, it may be otherwise installed to four-door vehicles. In either case, the rear seat is desirably of subsidiary type.